The German electricity consumer advocacy group NAEB projects that Germany’s electric power rates will continue to soar, possibly reaching an industry back-breaking 45 euro cents per kilowatt-hour by 2020, and even higher over the years that follow.

NAEB power price projections for 2020. Note that the horizontal scale changes at the year 2010 in order to condense the chart. The upper curve shows German electricity prices in euro-cents per kilowatt-hour, the middle curve shows the price for France and the lower curve for the USA. Source: NAEB.

Currently German power costs about 30 euro-cents per kilowatt-hour, and so are among the highest worldwide. The price is projected to soar another 50% rise to 45 cents by 2020. That would make German power 4 times more expensive than US power, and more than double that of France. This poses a real threat to German economic competitiveness.

Although the growth in German electricity prices have slowed some since 2015, the gap between German prices and other competing countries is as gaping as ever, with no relief in sight. In fact USA’s prices could even soon begin to ease off.

The NAEB writes:

For the Germany curve, one clearly sees the effects of market liberalization starting in the mid 1990s. Since 2000 the Energiewende mercilessly went into action! In 2015 we updated the estimates.”

The trend bodes ill for Germany’s energy-intensive sectors such as chemicals, glass and cement. The growing chasm compared to prices in USA and France risks a severe erosion of Germany’s domestic industry and long-term economic growth.

The US has seen very stable energy prices, and with ever more shale, and possibly a return to coal, its energy prices may even drop. Great for US industry, which is why the new President favours that policy.

Unfortunately, for Germany, energy prices are on an upward spiral. This makes it ever more difficult to compete with the likes of the US and China which both have substantially lower energy costs, and China lower wages.

It does not look good for an industrial power house. Already German petrochemical companies have increased their investment in the US and are repositioning, and this is because they are energy intensive industries such that the cost of energy is a major factor to their competitiveness on a global stage.

I am well aware that German Industry gets a rebate (or subsidy however you wish to refer to it) on its energy costs, but of course someone has to bear the financing of that rebate, and that creates its own fiscal drag on the economy.

“I am well aware that German Industry gets a rebate (or subsidy however you wish to refer to it) on its energy costs, but of course someone has to bear the financing of that rebate, and that creates its own fiscal drag on the economy.”

this is getting absurd. The private households are financing the heavy industry. But you complain about the higher electricity prices for households AND about the “subsidy”.

That article is horrible and shows a total lack of understanding of the electricity market and basic economics.

That data centre would be build somewhere. Now it is being build in Denmark and will run on 50+% renewables (that is good news).

“The more renewables, the more you pay.
It will quadruple the US prices.”

maybe it will (this would be good). But at the same time, use of electricity would go down. so the average household would pay only a little more and would not even notice the change (neither in electricity use).

In the UK, there are millions of pensioners whose only income is the state pension which is presently just under £120 per week €7,300 per year. If the recipient has worked less than 30 years, then the recipient gets even less, and there are many in that category.

sod says
“It will quadruple the US prices.” maybe it will (this would be good). But at the same time, use of electricity would go down. so the average household would pay only a little more and would not even notice the change (neither in electricity use)”

I suspect sod, you don’t exist in a competitive environment, do you?

Spewing forth ” insane” ” horrible” [to use two of sod’s favourite words] garbage like this gives away a lot about yourself.

Clearly an ideological twit. That’s not name calling sod, just a reasonable description of you from your ideas espoused within your writings.

[Living in central Washington State, USA.]
We have an all-electric house, and if the power goes off we burn wood to heat the house. We could use an outside charcoal grill for cooking if the power was off for more than a few hours. Some others near us use propane but I think they might need electricity for that to run also. (I really don’t know.)
There is no way a large increase in the cost of electricity could be considered a good thing.
I would call it a totally unnecessary destruction of wealth. Look up “cash for clunkers” for an example. Official name: Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS)
The “clunkers” traded in were destroyed, even though they were still usable vehicles. They were taken out of the used car market and so were not available for the less affluent. One write claimed: “… the program “sticks it” to the poor and lower-middle classes by raising the price of the remaining cars in the secondary market, … call it the “I Hate the Poor Act of 2009.”

Germany is destroying wealth about as fast as possible without (yet) causing riots.

Sorry, butr the amount of total garbage written here is simply shocking.

you have to consider the AGE of the electricity infrastructure if you want to make comparisons.

Running on your 40 year old oil heating system will look pretty cheap at the current low oil price, right up to the moment when it breaks down and you have to buy a new one at huge cost and against the uncertainty of future oil prices.

In the same way, a state running a system of old coal plants (written off decades ago) will look good in comparison with a system of new gas, wind and solar plants right until the coal plants need major investments and the solar and wind plants are written off as well.

You are drawing a trend line starting at the lowest point (2000, chosen purely for that reason) to the possibly highest point before the first solar and wind plants are leaving their EEG scheme.

This one doesn’t rule out CO effects. That was in the draft that was rejected. Their final paper was published despite ignoring advice by the reviewers to test their theory by deriving those waves from a period with low or no humans CO2 emission and see if this could accurately predict the temperatures in recent times.

There is no “real science” to this paper. It’s basically proving that you can do a DFT to any curve and reconstruct it from the result.

“A major blackout almost occurred Jan. 24 and was only prevented when German energy suppliers “also took the last reserve power plant,”

The day that “last reserve” plant refuses to come on line when asked your “Unlikely” WILL happen. It’s only a matter of time… I wonder if you or sob would be happy flying across the Pacific in an aircraft with the same haphazard approach to its control and power systems that you seem happy to inflict on millions of people? Oh, I forgot, you live such ECO friendly lives that you would never set foot on such a polluting mode of transport…

Living in Brevard county (Florida) I pay $0.10 per kVAh right on the US average. Connecticut has the highest electricity prices in the USA @ $0.18 per kVAh while rates are as low as $0.05 in Tennessee.

Things would get ugly here if someone suggested $0.31 per kVAh as in Germany. Apparently our intellectual betters who live in Europe can tolerate much more “Stupid Government” than us dumb Americans.